The conference “Competition to the new Supreme Court: best practices, lessons learned and prospects” is continued
On 25th of October 2017, the conference, that was organized with the support of the
USAID “New Justice” Program, with the assistance of the Commission, the HCJ, the EU Project “Support to Justice Sector Reforms in Ukraine” and the Ukrainian Canadian Project “Support for Judicial Reform” is being continued.
The second day of the conference began with the Fifth Session “The beginning of the competition: registration, verification, and admission of candidates: ensuring proper administration and management”. The participants of the session focused on discussing the experience and challenges facing the Commission in the process of selection of judges to the Supreme Court, starting with the online registration phase of candidates' intentions, special verification and admission of candidates for qualification examination. The participants of the section discussed the issues both from the Commission’s point of view and a candidate’s for a position of a judge. As result of the discussion, some recommendations have been developed which can be applied for any further improvement of administrative procedures during the competitions.
Mr. Oleksandr Bystrushkin, Deputy Head of the Secretariat of the Commission, stated in his speech that the holding of the competition of such importance as the competition for the position of a judge of the Supreme Court was a huge challenge for the Commission. “From year to year, the selection procedures become more and more complex and require more and more efforts and new organizational approaches. This is due to the growing demands of society. Moreover, we should follow the demands of transparency, publicity of the competition and provide equal and comfortable conditions for the candidates. We hope that the Commission has coped with these tasks,” - said
Mr. Oleksandr Bystrushkin.
The Lviv Regional Administrative Court judge, a candidate for the position of a judge to the Supreme Court Mr. Volodymyr Kravchiuk emphasized in his speech that twice in his life he participated in a competitive procedure in the judiciary and has something to compare. He noted the high level of organization of the competition by the Commission. However, he noted that the background information in which the competition took place is a confrontation between the Public and the state. “But what I would like to have is the fruitful cooperation, because during the confrontation a lot of strength was often lost”, - stressed Mr. Volodymyr Kravchiuk.
Mr. Kravchiuk thanked the Commission for the organization of an online broadcast of interviews with the candidates on YouTube Channel but noted that he hoped for a greater interest of society to the competition, as the first broadcasts were watched by thousands of viewers, and the last ones – just by a few dozens.
The Sixth Session was devoted to the questions of competence of judges, indicators, and methods of assessment. During the work, the international and Ukrainian experience in developing and evaluating professional competences – knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for the effective performance of the work of a judge – was discussed. Also, the judge's professiogram, developed with the support of the USAID “Fair Justice” Project, was presented and discussed to assist the Commission in the assessment of the candidates for a position of a judge.
The member of the Commission Mr. Stanislav Shchotka in his speech revealed the content and technology of the evaluation, explaining how 1000 points were distributed during the evaluation of each candidate for the position of a judge to the Supreme Court.
The manager of the project of the psychological testing of candidates for the position of a judge to the Supreme Court Ms. Anastasia Diomina described the professiogram of a judge, which included the presence of such professionally important qualities as communication, creativity, cognition, contactness, and emotionality.
Member of the HCJ Mr. Andrii Boiko highly appreciated the work of the Commission during the competition and emphasized that the procedures related to the competition were as formalized as possible, and therefore the conclusions made by the Commission in respect of each and every candidate has never been questioned or revised by the HCJ, although the candidates who received the negative opinion of the PIC were discussed very accurately.
During the Seventh Session, developing of test questions, administering of the exam, and ensuring of the quality and transparency in the processing of results were discussed. The technical aspects of this process were presented by the Director of the Judicial Career Department of the Secretariat of the Commission Mr. Taras Neshyk.
